Quick Start Guide
Take a tour of GURL Friday, while you have GURL Friday open to view.
General information
All of GURL Friday's activities are begun from the opening screen clickers (the Main Menu). We'll run through them here, noting that most activities are performed on particular, specialized layouts (which we call "screens").
In addition, any GURL Friday screen whose clicker has a Help button has an associated help layout, accessible by clicking the Help button. You will probably use some of the functions available in GURL Friday less often than others, and may find a little online refresher helpful.
But, if you are a true devotee of the Macintosh way, just open up GURL Friday and start clicking buttons! Try the Import Netscape Bookmarks button first.
We recommend that you use the clicker buttons to get around in GURL Friday. Although FileMaker Pro mavens will know that FileMaker Pro has other ways to navigate around in a database, nifty scripts for resizing screens, sorting, and all kinds of neat stuff that you won't want to miss are built into the clicker buttons.
The Main Menu Function Clicker.
The buttons on this clicker perform scripted functions. Function buttons on any clicker are green.
- Surf the Web
This should be obvious, but is it cool! Click this button to jump to a special layout that shows each GF-URL in GURL Friday as a small note, and sets
you up for the easiest surfing you've ever enjoyed. See Revisit Flagged Sites
Many Web Pages are frequently updated, and you may have some favorites that you wish to revisit periodically. Click this button, and GURL Friday will automatically Find and Sort any GF-URLs whose Revisit radio button has been clicked. You'll be switched to the Surfing screen, ready to go! You will see the Revisit radio button on both the Categorizing sceen, and on the Surfing Comment screen.
- Send Mail
Once you have established some Netscape Email addresses in GURL Friday, you may click this button to be switched to a list of those addresses, sorted and ready for sending a mail-call to Netscape..
- Quick Report
All of your GF-URLs will be sorted according to Category, then Title, and you'll be switched to a screen, ready to print out a report that lists only essential information.
- Import Netscape Bookmarks
See Converting your first Netscape Bookmarks file to learn the function of this button!
The Main Menu Navigation Clicker.
The buttons on this clicker switch you to different GURL Friday screens. Navigation buttons on any clicker are blue.
- Surf a Category
This button switches you to a layout where you may create a Found Set that you wish to Surf. Follow the Help screen instructions and you will build a list of particular types of GF-URLs that will be available in the list on your Surfing screen.
- Categorize and Comment
These buttons take you to screens that give full access to all of the fields in GURL Friday. See Working with GF-URLs for a detailed explanation of the fields available on these screens. Having trouble remembering just what these places looked like? Click the "Big Green G" button to open Netscape and go directly to the Web page any GF-URL represents!
- Full Reports
This button takes you to the first of two screens where you may Find for any type of GF-URLs, and print out a complete report of all the information collected for those GF-URLs. Look over the screens and you'll see that the Public report does not show your Password, User name, or Personal comment fields. But the Personal report does.
- Copy This Database
See Exporting copies of GURL Friday to learn about the screen this button switches you to.
- Build a Hotlist
See Building HTML Hotlists to learn about the screen this button switches you to.
You DO have Bookmarks, don't you?
We assume that you have been building a list of Bookmarks in Netscape using either the menu choices, or the shortcut Command-D to add a Bookmark. Note that while running Netscape you may View and edit comments for your Bookmarks using the shortcut Command-B.
Netscape keeps your Bookmarks as an HTML page that it continually updates. This "Bookmarks.html" file lives in your Netscape Prefs folder. It can be opened up for inspection with any word processor, if you are curious. You should never edit this file while it's installed, unless you want weird looking pages!
Conversion is easy.
To convert your unwieldy Netscape Bookmarks file to a nifty new GURL Friday database, simply click the Import Netscape Bookmarks button on the opening screen clicker, and navigate to your Bookmarks file in the ensuing FileMaker Pro dialog box. That's all there is to it!
Using GURL Friday to "Bookmark"
From now on, you should run GURL Friday while surfing, and use its "Get URL" function to add GF-URLs to GURL Friday directly.
Since you have imported your old Bookmarks file into GURL Friday, you don't want to do that again, or you will be adding duplicate GF-URLs to GURL Friday. So go to your Netscape Prefs folder, and drag your old Bookmarks file to the trash. Don't worry, Netscape will create a new, blank Bookmarks file when you first start it up, so that all is well with Netscape.